CHEO?

Even though the school year does not officially begin for another 2 months, now is the time that a school year home schooling mom gets things prepared for that year. Especially when there are multiple children involved or there are major curriculum decisions to be made.

CHEO - Christian Home Educators of Ohio - is a huge conference that takes place each year over the course of 3 days.

I have been purposefully avoiding this conference and only gathered information from friends that have gone once or twice in the past. Big things like this involving massive amounts of people make me cringe with anxiety. I can't even walk in to Bed Bath and Beyond because of the floor to ceiling merchandise. If there is a need to walk into that store even an inch then I must control my breathing so that I don't add to the commotion happening on the walls and taking it to the floor. Seriously.

So I avoid "those" type of places. I have had NO desire to attend this conference and with each new friend that says "It's a fantastic conference" their other words have left me feeling that I am perfectly fine with my hiney at home listening to their experiences.

Until this year. I have a dear friend that emailed me at the end of April, asking if I would attend this conference with her. May was so crazy for us - as it is every year - packed with fun and birthdays as well as Mother's Day. Throw in a few activities like a dance recital and visits with family and May moves fast with only a blur of pictures to prove that we did in fact have fun and a packed month. It wasn't until the end of May that I even sat down to consider whether or not I would be willing to go. But because of my friend, we decided that it would be a fun new experience. By that time we had missed the $20 discount with pre-registration. But she was still on board.

I am seriously impressed with CHEO. It is apparent that it has many years of experience behind the scheduling and planning that goes into this convention. The timing of the seminars and the time between was perfect to grab a quick look at the exhibit hall or grab a snack/drink before going to the next one.
The speakers were wonderful. I was never bored with a seminar or wished I wasn't there. I took pages and pages of notes. I felt that with each speaker we listened to that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, hearing exactly what I needed to hear.
The thing that hit me is that the speaking is not all about curriculum as one might expect. It instead is about matters of the heart.

My next several posts will be about those seminars in hopes that I can share with you the insight that I was given over those 36 hours. Prayerfully somebody can gain something from them as well. Of course my notes are going to be the points that hit me the most but still.

It was a wonderful thing that because we cannot be in every seminar, they provide CD recordings of each one for $7. You can even get a conference package for around $60. Very good idea! I bought one for me and picked up two for another friend that was unable to attend.

The biggest thing that occurred while we were there was not the 36 hours away from normal life (and with a friend at that!) but it was the choice of curriculum that came out of it.
We have been with Abeka for our entire 2 years of homeschooling. (grin) We are still very new. Even though it has worked wonderfully for our family I had begun to want something with a little more involvement from me. The History seemed to be lacking as well as the science. I was craving something more but didn't know what that more was because we had only been with one curriculum.

Well at CHEO they have this thing called The Exhibit Hall. It is one of those things that makes you want to use your deepest announcing voice each time you say it. Ready - The Exhibit Hall. Because it deserves the deep voice and so much more. Now this is the part where I saw myself running to the nearest corner hyperventilating but to my surprise that didn't happen. Instead right in front of me I saw the booth to the curriculum that I've been gathering information on since January. And I immediately turned the other way to find what I know is comfortable - the Abeka booth. While there I familiarized myself with what I already knew and asked my 2 questions about the year we are going into. I was then able to square my shoulders armed with the confidence and determination that we were going to stick with it and headed to the My Father's World booth. Dhu dhu dhu (deep voice) As soon as I walked in I was confused. Because instead of everything laid neatly out according to grade, I saw Insect Lore products on the outside and 5 different displays that said 2nd - 8th grade. Huh? So my shoulders slumped and I'm sure I got that lost puppy look on my face. A woman came up to me and asked if I had any questions. I'm sure she was sorry she asked as I went into my interview type of question and answer continually rebounding with yet another question. Actually I think she was glad to help me better understand the layout of MFW and why it is such a great curriculum. She herself uses it.

Over the course of the 2 days I met with I believe was every MFW mother there. In the end, a few of them knew me by name. All of that to say that they have sold me on the curriculum. The fact that it teaches a Biblical World View, is geared toward multi kid families, and it is deep in history (hated it!) and science(loved it!), as well as requires a little more from me, we have made the decision to switch our main curriculum to MFW and use Abeka for math and language arts.

We are very glad with this decision. I cannot wait to get these materials into my house so that I can go through them and plan our year! We said that if we do not like it then we can switch back next year and move on. But I have a feeling that we will like it very much! If you are interested in knowing more about MFW give me a call and I will do my best to walk you through it. It is easier to do it in person with visual aids but I think I can do it over the phone too.

Because of CHEO and God's leading for me to go there, I was able to see and compare the two curriculum in person. I was also introduced to many of the homeschool speakers and advocates across the country. I am planning on going again next year with some things that we learned this year - pre-register and save $20, get a hotel within walking distance & bring cash!

Until next year CHEO my new friend!